Photo By Jymi Bolden

The Arts Consortium's former Linn Street facility featured this outdoor mural on an exterior wall.

More than half of the 65 members of the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati (ACC) gathered on Aug. 24 at the Freedom Center to express their frustrations with current leadership of the area's leading African-American arts center and one of the oldest African-American arts institutions in the U.S. They also offered much-needed support for the ailing organization.

The meeting was an unofficial gathering led by former ACC executive directors, including Ernest O. Britton and Glenn A. Ray. No ACC board members or staff members were present, but that did not stop the audience from outlining a set of priorities: replace the current board; hire a new executive director; and begin plans to find and fund a new home in Cincinnati's West End, close to their previous location at 1515 Linn St. Those present were passionate, opinionated and vocal in their support for AAC. All agreed that, if the ACC is to survive, immediate change is needed at the top.

After 33 years, ACC is experiencing hard times with the loss of its longtime home at 1515 Linn St. in Cincinnati's West End and a relocation to gallery space inside Cincinnati Museum Center. Executive Director Glenn A. Ray was dismissed in March; no replacement has been announced. Steve Dobbins, outgoing ACC board president, is the acting director. The city of Cincinnati and the Fine Arts Fund have reduced their funding support.

The Aug. 24 meeting, two-and-a-half hours of fiery questions and debate, confirmed a heated split between longtime members and the current board about how to save the ACC. Supporters expressed pessimism about the chances for improving, but Ray is excited about the meeting's outcome.

"I think the people in attendance showed a deep love and concern for the Arts Consortium as they knew it, but not so much for what is going on now," Ray says, speaking several days after the meeting. "I had feared that, since the Arts Consortium had moved from Linn Street, there was no interest in the organization anymore. I was proven wrong."

Ray was executive director from Jan. 5, 2004, to March 8, 2005. In fall 2004 the organization was ordered to vacate its Linn Street location. Ray says the ACC was operating with a month-to-month lease, and the board refused to sign a long-term agreement for $4,100 per month. Ray wanted to fight to stay and to seek the necessary funds to do so. The board decided to downsize to the Museum Center gallery and to investigate building additional offices there. That board decision, Ray says, has hurt the ACC as well as its high-profile tenant, the Cincinnati Black Theatre Company.

"The partnership between Cincinnati Black Theatre and the Arts Consortium provided energy and programs and traffic of people coming and going. It provided a sense of vitality. When the organization was forced to move, Cincinnati Black Theatre had to go off on its own. The Arts Consortium was left naked with very few signature programs."

ACC supporters agree that the 1515 Linn St. space, once a grocery store, was worn, but at least it was their own. It gave them a profile in Cincinnati's West End, a chance to participate in the neighborhood's transformation and, most importantly, a chance to generate revenue.

There are four desks behind a partition in the back of the ACC's Museum Center gallery. It's enough quiet and privacy for Director of Finance Sarita D. Ciers and Associate Director Paula Sherman to finish start-of-the-work-week tasks. Neither staffer will comment about the Aug. 24 meeting except to say they knew about it but did not attend. All questions are referred to Dobbins, who explained the board's decision to stay away, saying, "We did not set it up. We were not one of the organizers. But there is an open board meeting on Sept. 13."

The Linn Street facility sits vacant, despite the fact that ACC was forced out for a new tenant. An annual members meeting is planned for September, a chance to take concerns to the board. Ray says he and other former executive directors continue to meet. They are focused, and they are planning. Something is bound to happen. ©